latinos crossing the border, won't be able to tell if there's an arab secretly trying to cross the border with them because they all look alike and they might accidentally help bring an arab over here mingled in? is that the argument? seriously? today a federal judge and the attorney general take bold steps toward justice. >> the halls of justice are buzzing today with two major pieces of news. >> new york city's controversial stop and frisk program. >> a judge finds that the stop and frisk policy is unconstitutional. >> also today, attorney general eric holder -- >> attorney general eric holder

-- >> announcing a brand new justice department policy. >> also, the gift that keeps on giving. >> hi, i'm governor pat mccrory. >> anyone who says that racial discrimination is no longer a problem -- >> the integrity of our election process is vital to our democracy. >> -- must not be paying attention. >> the stop, question frisk has saved countless lives. >> new york city mayor michael bloomberg. >> the possibility of being stopped is a vital d. terminate. >> his reaction to the federal judge's ruling. >> we are the poster child that everyone wants to follow. >> 89% of those who were stopped were innocent. >> i'd be very surprised if the city doesn't appeal. >> the politics of fear and anger. >> it's create a kind of hopelessness. >> on to what the attorney general is doing. >> i have create aid modification of the justice department's charging policies. >> a major shift in the war on drugs. >> some of the enforcement priorities that we have set have had a destabilizing effect on particular communities. >> america's public enemy number one. >> drugs are menacing our society. >> -- is drug abuse. >> the politics of fear and anger. >> it's created a kind of hopelessness.

>> ultimately counterproductive. >> a landmark day for civil rights advocates on au pair of issues. >> this totally rewrites the conversation. >> one national, one local, both historic. last week, when president obama said this, his attorney general, eric holder, was apparently listening. >> we all know that young african-american men disproportionately have involvement in criminal activities and violence. for a lot of reasons. a lot of it having to do with poverty. a lot of it having to do with disruptions in their neighborhoods, in their communities, failing schools, and all those things. and that's no excuse, but what we also believe in is that people, everybody should be treated fairly and the system should work for everyone. >> today the obama administration's attorney

general announced important new changes in prosecutorial guidelines involving low-level non-violent drug offenses because federal law is littered with oppressive and unreasonable mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, those mandatory minimum sentences can only be changed by congress. realizing that this congress will never take action in this area, the attorney general has decided to instruct his prosecutors to measure the charges they bring in criminal cases against the sentencing rules for those cases. the wise use of prosecutorial discretion alone could dramatically reduce and eliminate some of the most oppressive and unfair drug crimes in federal courts. this announcement came on the same day that a federal judge in new york city found that the new york police department controversial stop and frisk policy violates the constitution.

judge shira scheindlin did not immediately end stop and frisk. instead, she ordered a federal monitor to oversee the program. the judge's opinion says that the city's mayor and police commissioner "have willfully ignored overwhelming proof that the policy of targeting the right people is racially discriminatory and therefore violates the united states constitution." one of the plaintiffs in the case, nicholas peart, wrote about his multiple experiences of being stopped and frisked in a "new york times" op-ed piece. "these experiences changed the way i felt about the police. after the third incident i worried when police cars drove by. i was afraid i would be stopped and searched or that something worse could happen. i dress better if i go downtown. i don't hang out with friends outside my neighborhood in harlem as much as i used to. essentially, i incorporated into my daily life the sense that i might find myself up against a wall or on the ground with an officer's gun at my head.

for a black man in his 20s like me, it's just a fact of life in new york. when i was young, i thought cops were cool. the police should consider the consequences of a generation of young people who want nothing to do with them. distrust, alienation, and more crime." joining me now, nicholas peart, a plaintiff in the to have and frisk case. he testified on the second day of the trial. khary lazarre-white, the co-founder and co-executive director of the brotherhood sister sol. and msnbc's ari melber. nicholas peart, what was it like today when you heard the judge announce that this policy violated the constitution? >> oh, i was definitely grateful by her decision. i felt that it was a necessary step forward for the communities of black and brown -- that black and brown people occupy. and just extremely grateful. you know, this has been a long time coming.

so many lives have been affected by this policy and it being used by the police in a very unjust way. and on so many levels it, you know, restores hope back to the community that, you know, this is unjust and your voice does count. >> khary, i think if you could read one thing about stop and frisk it would be nicholas's op-ed piece. we'll have a link to it on our website tonight. because it is that very important firsthand account of a young man's encounter with these kinds of stops and the evolution of his thinking and what it can do over time in these kinds of large numbers to really sour a community. >> that's absolutely right. i think what nicholas has touched on and why his voice is so powerful in this conversation is a personal experience of what stop and frisk is. over 5 million stops under this present administration. and one of the things you didn't hear today in the press conference from the mayor and from the police commissioner is any type of sympathy, any type of respect for the dignity of

young people like nicholas. they are citizens of the city as well. and even if the mayor thinks it's the right crime-fighting procedure, and i agree with the mayor on many issues, but on this one i think he's fundamentally wrong. there has to be an understanding that these are citizens of the city as well, that black and brown men all around the city who experience this issue feel this pain and feel this hurt and that he needs to recognize that and show sympathy to our experience, even if he wants to defend the practice, which i think is indefensible he still as a leader has to understand the morality of the issue and what young men like nicholas go through every single day in the city. >> let's listen to what the mayor said when he said he thinks this is a very dangerous decision, specifically a dangerous decision for new york city. >> this is a very dangerous decision made by a judge that i think just does not understand how policing work and what is compliant with the u.s. constitution as determined by the supreme court.

we believe we have done exactly what the courts allow and the constitution allow us to do, and we will continue to do everything we can to keep this city safe. i worry for my kids, and i worry for your kids. i worry for you, and i worry for me. crime can come back anytime. the criminals think they're going to get away with things. >> ari melber, from the mayor today, he seemed to be talking about crime control and the judge in this case, her first concern is not crime control, it's the constitution. >> exactly. when you listen to the mayor there, you get the feeling he either didn't read the opinion or didn't care what it said. the opinion speaks very specifically about the fact that there are practices that may lead to fighting crime like forcing confessions or mass internment but that because they're unconstitutional they're

not allowed. so you have to start with that. then you can have the macroeconomic policy discussion, knowing this is now off the table in its current form, and look at the fact that there are cities that also have seen crime rates decline without this level of racial profiling. that's what it is. that's what the court said. i do want to also say to nicholas, it's an honor to be on a panel with you. what you did and what so many of these plaintiffs did working in this case was obviously put themselves out there, take a risk. it's leadership. it's activism. and i think it's exciting on a day like today to see it paid off. it doesn't always. and when you see the story that is in this filing, i mean now in this ruling that talks about nicholas wearing a hoodie, being stopped for no reason, and a judge saying now, looking at the evidence, that was racial profiling, that has to stop, i think that's an extraordinary message to this city, which has been divided along these racial lines not by ourselves but by many ways by nypd. >> and i think that the

hyperbole in that last statement by the mayor is also something that inherently is very, very dangerous. we need to remember that there are over 2,200 murders in 1990. by the time this mayor came into power there were a little over 600. the great decrease in crime happened before he ever stepped into the mayoralty. so to insinuate that if we move away from his practices that blood will run in the streets and this will be a dangerous city again is something i think is inherently very, very dangerous as we come up on a mayoral election, that he's the only one it who can keep the city safe and there are police commissioners and elected officials all across the country who would disagree with that statement and their municipalities have also seen great decrease in crime. so just from a criminologist's perspective the numbers are wrong. and we have to make sure when we talk about this issue that the narrative is true, the narrative is consistent, and the numbers are accurate. >> nicholas, the mayor kept saying today that we run -- the way we run the program is we go where the crime is and that's why we end up with this

overwhelming minority population, 80% in the stop and frisks being members of minority populations. what is your response to that? >> well, you don't stop someone who is a law-abiding citizen, who is going to starbucks, who have no intention of committing any types of crime. that's not the way you fight crime. you know, it's completely think important to note these aren't minor inconveniences. these are very hostile situations. and for years it has been downplayed and watered down that, you know, these are minor inconveniences. and i think by the judge ruling in her findings that this is something that's a problem in these communities and it needs to be dealt with in a productive way. >> nicholas, let me just ask you about -- all of your stops that you described in the "new york

times" in some real detail, in each one of them they begin and end in a very rude way. and american policing has a very rude edge to it. they feel that everybody they're approaching is criminals and they deserve to be treated rudely. but each time when these police established to their satisfaction that you were not in any way engaged in anything criminal and that the stop and the frisk turned out to be the stopping and the frisking of a law-abiding citizen, did any of these police officers ever leave you feeling okay about it? did they ever say sorry, you know, thanks for cooperating with us, we appreciate it, we do this for your safety and for the community's safety? did they ever leave it in a way that made you think, well, okay, they handled it about the best they could? >> well, i mean, certainly it's going to be uncomfortable with every stop. you know, i'm just a law-abiding citizen. i'm going to the store. i'm doing what everyone else does in my community in a

gentrified harlem. what white caucasians do in my neighborhood. and i'm stopped for just very unjust reasons. and i think that, you know, this is -- stop or frisk has become like a form of, you know, social conditioning for a lot of young people in my neighborhood and it certainly needs to stop. >> ari, i was struck by the statistics developed in the case, which indicated you actually cannot support the racial bias in the program with the results that they get. they say that the main thing that they are looking for is weapons, that's their main objective on the frisk. if they find the weapon, that's the gold of the frisk. and yet 1% of the stops of black people produced a weapon. 1.1% of the stops of hispanics produced a weapon.

and 1.4% of the stops of white people produced a weapon. therefore, on the police department's own standard, the most suspicious group, the most fertile group for weapons, is white people. >> that's exactly right. and that's why the nypd statistics were so hurtful to them in this case, and it's why they lost on two grounds -- on 14th amendment equal protection grounds, which have to do with disparate treatment by race. and on the broad fourth amendment on reasonable search grounds. and lawrence, to your point, what does it teach us? number one, it teaches us that this program is very bad at finding weapons. let's recall that the judicial standard that's mandated under the law, even under this lower rule, which is stop and frisk as compared to a traditional search, is still that you have some real cognizable suspicion there's a weapon there. that suspicion shouldn't lead to you 1 out of 100. and secondly, that teaches you that what was actually going on was a type of racial profiling.

and that's where this fight's going to go. if bloomberg is going to go and we're having these discussions around the country and congress as we've discussed is thinking about banning racial profiling, mayor bloomberg pulled off a neat trick in getting everyone to call this stop and frisk. today the court called it what it is, which is racial profiling. >> khary, quickly before we go, i want to get your reaction to what eric holder announced today. >> you know, my reaction is that it's a small step in the right direction. as we know, there's a problem with mass incarceration in this country, nearly 2.3 million people incarcerated. less than 10% are in the federal system. so this is only kind of the tip of the iceberg, number one. but it's an example of what can be done to get around the mandatory minimums. the second issue is that unfortunately i think it is al too late. i mean, attorney general holder has been in a position to do this for over four years. and so i appreciate the step now, but i don't think that the congratulations should be that

intense because there's a lot more that could have been done, a lot more that should have been done. i'm happy the step was taken. but to really deal with 2.3 million people incarcerated we need to move much, much faster. >> cary lazarre-white, thank you. ari melber, thank you. nicholas peart, thank you, and congratulations for your participation in this historic case. >> thank you. coming up, north carolina's governor signed the state's new voter suppression bill into law today. and what does it take for a rodeo clown to get banned for life from the missouri state fair? we will show you that video. and the jury has spoken today in the boston trial of whitey bulger and time for the media to start rewriting their image of whitey bulger. that's in tonight's rewrite.

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sarah palin jumped into the rand paul versus chris christie fight. after it was over. after rand paul surrendered to chris christie and begged to kiss and make up, a proposal that christie just wasn't in the mood for.

so whose side did loser sarah palin jump in on when the fight was all over? the loser's side, of course. >> where am i? i'm on team rand. rand paul understands. he gets the whole notion of don't tread on me, government, whereas chris christie is for big government and, you know, trying to go on to get along in so many respects. and you know, some people look at him as oh, man, he's the governor who goes rogue. no. you know, he's got a shtick going there where he's got a youtube videographer following him around, kind of these set-up situations sometimes, so that he can be seen as perhaps a little bit avant garde and going rogue on things. but no, chris christie's for more government, and his record proves that, whereas rand paul with that healthy libertarian streak that we need more of in our politicians, team rand paul. >> thank you, fox news. up next, north carolina's governor signs the voter i.d. bill into law. i am the ghost of cookies past. residue.

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many of those from the extreme left who have been criticizing photo i.d. are using scare tactics. they're more interested in divisive politics than ensuring that no one's vote is disenfranchised by a fraudulent ballot. >> north carolina's republican governor pat mccrory signed that state's new restrictive voter i.d. bill into law today. starting in 2016, north carolina voters will need government-issued photo identification at the polls. the key components of the bill are clearly designed to make voting more difficult for people who tend to vote for democratic party candidates.

the bill shortens early voting from 17 to 10 days and eliminates same day voter registration. in the last election many more democrats voted early than republicans. 1.2 million north carolina democrats voted early, while only 800,000 republicans did. the bill makes absentee voting the easiest possible way of voting because, as north carolina republicans have noticed, 86% of absentee ballots are cast by white voters in north carolina. but only 8.7% of absentee ballots in that state are cast by black voters. republicans said the legislation is meant to prevent voter fraud, which they claim is "both rampant and undetected." now, there's no explanation from them as to how something can be both rampant and undetected. today the aclu filed a lawsuit challenging the law and the

justice department has indicated it will likely challenge that law. joining me now is dale ho of the aclu's voting rights project and nia-malika henderson of the "washington post." dale, what are your principal legal challenges to the law? >> we're challenging the law under both the united states constitution and section 2 of the federal voting rights act. the question we really have for north carolina is why won't you just let people vote? all americans should be free to cast a ballot and exercise the most fundamental right we have in our democracy. but as you can see from this bill, which has absolutely nothing to do with voter fraud but has everything to do with making the right to vote harder, it's not the kind of thing that we can tolerate at the aclu. it's not the kind of thing that our clients in north carolina and our co-counsel in north carolina can tolerate. it's a terrible bill all around. some people have called it the most suppressive voting law that's been enacted in the last 50 years, pretty much since the voting rights act was passed in

1965. so it's really something that we just have to challenge under both the constitution and the voting rights act. >> nia, they are really trying to discourage students from voting. they say it has to be a government-issued i.d. but they will not accepts any i.d.s issued by their government-run universities and colleges in that state. they're not considering those to be government issued i.d.s. no student i.d.s are acceptable. and the targeting there is pretty obvious, isn't it? >> it is. lots of college students in north carolina, they've got duke, unc, north carolina, anc central as well, and one of the things they're also trying to do is say that 16 and 17-year-olds can't register early for when they turn 18. so i think clinton is right. clinton was giving a speech on voter suppression just as this bill was being signed into law. she called it the greatest hits of voter suppression. it's so vast and broad. and it really covers so many different types of people. students, african-americans as well. and i think this whole idea of

preventing voter fraud, i think there have only been two alleged cases of voter fraud in the last ten years in north carolina. so this law clearly going out of the scope of that whole idea of voter suppression. the irony here is that republicans are the party of rolling back restrictions. right? let 1,000 markets bloom, freedom and all that stuff. and this one certainly puts more restrictions on people's ability to vote. it will be interesting to see what somebody like kate hagen says about this and her framing around it. she's up in 2014. and what all southern democrats sort of talk about when they talk about voter suppression. >> dale, i want to go to that specific point that nia just raised about the kids who were turning 18, say, the day before election day or on election day. because they will not be allowed

to preregister for that provable moment when they are going to become 18, that seems like an unconstitutional denial of an 18-year-old's right to vote. >> that's why we have same-day registration during the early voting period in north carolina. it allows people in the run-up to election day to register to vote and cast a ballot at the same time. about 250,000 north carolinians took advantage of that in 2012 and in 2008. they're not going to have an opportunity to do that in future elections. now, what's really important to us in particular is the effect that this is going to have on the african-american community. african-americans are about 20% of the voters in north carolina, but they're over 30% of the people who take advantage of same-day registration. and we think that that was one of the reasons why the north carolina legislature enacted this bill. >> now, nia, we saw in the last election specifically

african-american voters in florida and elsewhere adapting to these new laws that were attempts to suppress their vote, and we actually in some places got larger turnouts because of the reaction to the attempt to suppress. and i'm wondering in this case, for example, about the absentee ballot provision, which is one of the easiest ones to qualify. it's easier to qualify for an absentee ballot than an on-site voting. and might we see an adaptation to that in north carolina where the african-american absentee ballot rate goes up, it's now much smaller than the white -- >> that could certainly be one of effects of this. we don't know yet what the effect of those voter i.d. laws are. some studies suggest 1% or 2% in terms of a decline in the amount of people who show up at the polls. but in a state like north carolina, if you look at that

2008 race over when mccrory ran against purdue, it was about a 1% or 2% difference. purdue won that race. so when you're talking about those kinds of margins, these voter i.d. laws, even if it's only 1% or 2%, it really makes a difference. but i think on the other side it does seem to be making -- it seems to be inciting black votes to go to the polls. they are not going to be denied the power of the ballot. >> nia-malika henderson and dale ho, thank you both for joining he m tonight. >> thank you. >> thanks a lot. coming up, the political clowns in the republican party. and in the "rewrite" tonight the bulger brothers, whitey and billy, finally reunited. with nothing left to lose. joint pain and stiffness... accomplishing even little things can become major victories. i'm phil mickelson, pro golfer. when i was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, my rheumatologist prescribed enbrel for my pain and stiffness, and to help stop joint damage. [ male announcer ] enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events

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in the spotlight tonight, political clowns. now, what does it take for a rodeo clown to get banned for life from the missouri state fair? here's what one clown did saturday night to get banned for life. >> did they tell you about our famous helper we're going to have out here tonight? >> no, they did not. >> they didn't say anything about that? >> it's obama. >> let me tell these people about who we've got helping. obama's going to have to just stay there. watch out for those bulls. and president obama. >> hey. i know a clown. just because he goes around acting like one doesn't mean he is one.

>> the state's democratic senator claire mccaskill called the stunt shameful and unacceptable. republican lieutenant governor peter kinder tweeted on sunday the missouri state fair celebrates missouri and our people. i condemn the actions disrespectful to potus the other night. we are better than this. and today democratic missouri governor jay nixon called the incident "inappropriate and offensive" and said that he will have the office of administration review the state fair's contracts. according to the state budget director, the state fair is partly funded by taxpayer money. more than $550,000 comes from a state tax on wine and grapes. joining me now, perry beam, who was at the missouri state fair on saturday night and posted the picture of the obama rodeo clown that went viral. perry, what was your feelings when you were watching that?

>> i was disgusted, mr. o'donnell. that kind of display doesn't belong at a state-funded event. it was divisive. and it's something that's billed as family entertainment and inclusive. i come from a mixed family. my wife is an american citizen from taiwan. and we were there with a student from taiwan. and the acts that were happening in the ring, they drew attention to the president's lips. they shoved a broomstick up his bottom, for goodness sake. you can't do that and expect everybody to be happy with it. it was in bad taste, to say the least. >> you said that it actually felt more like a kkk rally than a rodeo. >> not that i've been to one. but the way they're portrayed on television. >> yeah. >> the announcer got the -- he got the crowd whooped up.

and he was trying to wind them up. and i know what that's all about. i'm a piano player. i understand trying to get the crowd involved. and sometimes you go a little bit out on the edge. next thing you know, though, the crowd's feeding off the announcer, the announcer's feeding off the crowd. you've got the mask in play. and then you have the racist allusions. and pretty soon it's a nasty recipe and quite frankly it made me kind of sick. >> and perry, how long was he out there? how long did this act go on? >> not more than 15 minutes. it was at the very end of the rodeo. bull riding's always the last event. and they set the -- they brought him out as a statue, and people thought he might have been. later on during the act a bull actually got close to him and he jumped up and ran off in a pretty dramatic way.

>> have you heard any defense of this that makes sense to you? >> yes and no. as i said, i know how this kind of thing gets started as a performer. the people who were in charge of entertaining the crowd thought that perhaps this crowd was, and rightly so, a crowd that was down on obama. he's had a lot of bad press in these parts, especially from the national rifle association and other conservative groups. and they thought to get some mileage out of it. so i understand how that happens. i'm not mad at them for it. on the other hand, they are a patriotic organization. rodeo's all about god and country and mom and apple pie. one of the reasons we took our student there. he was not treated to that. he was treated to something else. so i think it was -- they did it in ignorance and it's -- one fed on the other. and i think it got out of hand.

it was ugly. >> perry beam, thank you for joining us tonight with your observations. thank you. >> thank you, mr. mcdonnell. appreciate it. joining me now, msnbc's jonathan capehart. jonathan, i want to go to another kind of clownish situation, that is, texas republican congressman blake farenthold last week at a town hall meeting talking about impeaching president obama. >> if we were to impeach the president tomorrow, you could probably get the votes in the house of representatives to do it. but it would go to the senate and he wouldn't be convicted. what message do we send to america if we impeach obama and he gets away with what he's impeached for and is found innocent? what do we say is okay? >> jonathan, doesn't seem to be important to mention what you would impeach him for. >> right. i was sitting there thinking, okay, what's the crime?

what's he accused of doing? and it's unclear. i guess being obama is enough to be impeached. >> but you can sit there and have a very calm discussion with your constituents about this as if it's a perfectly reasonable proposition, and no one's going to contest that. >> no one's going to contest it. it's a perfectly rational thing to talk about impeaching the president. but you know, let's give him points for honesty. he did say it wouldn't go anywhere even if they tried it. >> yeah, he has a pretty good reading of that jury in the senate. let's listen to more from texas. this is ted cruz's father, rafael cruz, this weekend in iowa. >> a young charismatic leader rose up, talking about hope and change. his name was fidel castro.

socialism requires that government becomes your god. that's why they have to destroy the concept of god. they have to destroy all loyalties except loyalty to the government. that's what is behind homosexual marriage. >> jonathan capehart, i don't even -- i don't have a question. your reaction, please, sir. >> you know, hey, look, father -- senator cruz's dad is a healthy, spry-looking man. pity his comments are sort of other-worldly. look, it's not that the president of the united states said anything or had any effect legally on whether same-sex marriage is legal in this country. it was the supreme court that made the determination in terms of doma on the federal -- so-called defense of marriage act on the federal level and prop 8 at the state level in california. you know, social conservatives,

i'll give them this much. they are diehards. they believe in what they think. until there aren't any of them left. the country is moving very quickly away from what mr. cruz was saying in that clip. and you know, that confab happening there, they couldn't care less as their numbers dwindle. >> it's always fun for me to watch a guy on medicare collecting social security complaining about american socialism. jonathan capehart, thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. coming up -- why drugs can be more dangerous to a user after rehab. you're really going to want to see this. and in the "rewrite" tonight, why whitey bulger's family life will now be much better because he's in prison. [ male announcer ] if you had a dollar, for every dollar

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attacked now by a republican primary candidate who's saying that mitch mcconnell is not conservative enough. mitch mcconnell of course accuses the other guy of not being conservative enough.

♪ >> we're on the same team here. i'll tell you that much. ♪ >> we're on the same team here. i'll tell you that much. >> up next, the family life of whitey bulger is in tonight's "rewrite." vo: i've always thought the best part about this country is that we get to create our future. you get to take ownership of the choices you make. the person you become. i've been around long enough to recognize the people who are out there owning it.

the ones getting involved and staying engaged. they're not sitting by as their life unfolds. and they're not afraid to question the path they're on. because the one question they never want to ask is "how did i end up here?" i started schwab for those people. people who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. but you had to leave rightce to now, would you go? world, man: 'oh i can't go tonight' woman: 'i can't.' hero : that's what expedia asked me. host: book the flight but you have to go right now. hero: (laughs) and i just go? this is for real right? this is for real? i always said one day i'd go to china,

just never thought it'd be today. anncr: we're giving away a trip every day. download the expedia app and your next trip could be on us. expedia, find yours. bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorn's small business earns double miles on every purchase every day. produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? ahh, oh! [ garth ] great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. here's your wake up call. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards. choose double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase every day. what's in your wallet? [ crows ] now where's the snooze button? from that summer day two years ago when 81-year-old charles gasko was lured out of his apartment on 3rd street in santa monica and then instantly handcuffed and unmasked by the

fbi as whitey bulger, there has been no reasonable doubt that whitey was going to spend the rest of his life in prison. a federal court jury made that all but official today in boston, finding him guilty on charges involving 11 murders. the formal sentencing hearing is scheduled for november, when judge denise casper will give whitey the specifics of his death in prison sentence, a sentence which will more than cover the rest of his now shot life. news organizations have scrupulously been using the adjective "alleged" before the word "murderer." they can all now rewrite that to "convicted murderer whitey bulger." while they're at it, they should also rewrite some of the concepts they've been using in their coverage of the life and times of whitey bulger. you will frequently see the phrase reign of terror as if boston was somehow cowering in fear when he was doing his thing in boston.

as the evidence showed, except in one instance, you had nothing to fear from whitey bulger if you weren't involved in his life or his business. i know people who whitey invited into his life who not so respectfully declined and they're all alive today. virtually no one outside of his south boston neighborhood knew who whitey bulger was until he fled boston and was living in hiding because it was only then that he made life very uncomfortable for the other member of his family, who actually was famous in massachusetts, his little brother billy. billy was the state senator representing whitey's district and my district in boston. billy climbed the ladder to become the president of the massachusetts senate. and by far the most powerful politician in massachusetts, far more powerful than the democratic and republican governors who came and went during billy's reign. eventually, whitey brought billy down when people outside of boston kept asking billy questions about his big brother the murderer.

>> have you talked to your brother, james, since 1995? and if so, where was he and where is he now? >> on advice of counsel i am unable to answer any questions today. and this position is based among other things on privacy and due process rights and the right against being compelled to provide evidence that may tend to incriminate oneself. all of which are found in the bill of rights, including the rights and privileges under the first, fifth, and sixth amendments to the united states constitution. >> billy went into forced retirement not long after that appearance. whitey's family life has actually improved considerably since he's become a federal prisoner. he gets to see his family again during prison visiting sessions. his brother jackie and one of his nieces were frequently in the courtroom, supporting whitey. the bulger family is apparently not ashamed of whitey.

and now they all get to see him again and talk to him, which was actually never going to happen if whitey's plan to live out his days on 3rd street in santa monica had worked. and now billy doesn't have to lean on the fifth amendment next time someone asks where his brother is. and so the story of the bulger brothers ends, with billy and whitey together again, with nothing left to lose because whitey, the cowardly punk with a gun, the murderer, the rat, lost it all for himself and his little brother billy. and they should always be remembered in southie and everywhere else as the losers that they are. oh this is soft.

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because all these whole grains aren't healthy unless you actually eat them ♪ multigrain cheerios. also available in delicious peanut butter. healthy never tasted so sweet. we'll hear what lea michele had to say last night about the death of her friend, boyfriend cory monteith. we'll hear that next. and we will consider what we need to know about drug treatment, especially of young people. that's coming up next. [ metal rattling ] ♪ boo! i am the ghost of meals past. when you don't use pam, this is what you get. residue.

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drug abuse kills people every day. people of all ages. one recent victim, cory monteith, was remembered last night by his girlfriend and fellow "glee" cast member, lea michele. >> i just wanted to be here today to personally thank all of you and tell everyone out there how much all of your love and support has meant to me over these very past difficult few weeks. thank you. i wanted to dedicate this award to cory. for all of you out there who loved and admired cory as much as i did, i promise that with your love we're going to get through this together. he was very special to me and also to the world. and we were very lucky to witness his incredible talent, his handsome smile, and his beautiful, beautiful heart. so whether you knew him

personally or just as finn hudson, cory reached out and he became a part of all of our hearts. and that's where he'll stay forever. so thank you guys so much. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> the 31-year-old actor died a month ago in a vancouver hotel room from a drug overdose involving heroin and alcohol. cory monteith was very open about his long-time struggle with substance abuse and voluntarily checked himself into rehab in march of this year. in the upcoming season of "glee" a network executive has revealed the show will "deal directly with drug addiction and with the circumstances surrounding cory's death." joining me now, david sheff, author of "clean: overcoming addiction and ending america's greatest tragedy."

david, i want to go to something that i read recently in a piece in "usa today" where a doctor said people are more vulnerable when they come out of rehab because they've gone through detox and now their body doesn't have the same tolerance for some of the kinds of drugs that they'd been using on a regular basis before that and this might be involved in this situation. he may have been more vulnerable at this point. >> well, it's true, lawrence. in fact, most people who overdose and die after treatment, it happens within the first weeks or month for exactly that reason. which is why when we look back on what happened to mr. monteith in this tragedy not only is it incredibly sad, it's horrific, what can we say, but it also is criminal. it borders on malpractice that we -- a doctor -- that professionals will send someone out of treatment without the proper aftercare, without discharging them with a plan. we have life-saving technology. we have medications that would have helped in a case like this.

>> what are those, david? >> well, there's a whole -- he died of course of opiate -- opiate overdose. and we have medications that are -- saboxone, methadone, they've been proven to work. they're controversial, but they shouldn't be. they have risks like any other medication. but they increase the risks that someone is going to be able to stay sober, that they won't relapse dramatically. these are block -- they're opiate blockers, that they take away the craving and they block an addict from getting high after treatment. and there's no reason why anyone in his position, in mr. monteith's position should not be treated with these medications that work. >> and david, is the -- is there a course of treatment with those kinds of medications where they get ramped down over time, or is the notion that you would stay with them for a protracted